


It Takes A Village

by goodlivin2u



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean Goes to College, Domestic Fluff, Inspired by How I Met Your Mother, M/M, Mild Language, Original Story - Freeform, Trickster Gabriel (Supernatural), dadstiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 02:02:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17356847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodlivin2u/pseuds/goodlivin2u
Summary: Cas and Dean find out that Gabe never sent in a set of college applications to a specific college back when they were teenagers. Dean takes it as a challenge to apply to that same school now, when he's an adult with a full-time job and seven people living under his roof. Will he drop the subject, or will it cause him to make a huge life decision that could impact his whole family?





	It Takes A Village

**Author's Note:**

> For the facebook group Destiel Port's weekly bingo. This week's challenge was "Gabe helps sail the Destiel ship."

“Your dad and I had applied to schools all over California, hoping that we could either get into the same school, or two that were nearby each other. There was this one school that Dean applied to that didn’t have my intended major, and I told him that I’d apply anyway and attend school there if he got in. But you know how stubborn – and caring – your dad can be, right? He told me to not waste my time, and to just apply where I wanted to go or where they had the classes I wanted to take. He said that we would figure it out. It was the only school on our lists that didn’t match up. I never heard back from them, strangely enough.”

“What would have happened, Papa, if you did hear from them?” his seven-year-old daughter Emma asked. Cas and Dean were sitting on the couch, reliving the stories of their past as their children listened in.

“Well, it would depend on their answer. I was ready to follow Dean anywhere, even back then. So if they said I got in, and Dean wanted to go there, that’s where we’d be.”

“You know, now that I think about it… I didn’t get a response letter from them, either.” Dean mused. “I wasn’t really keeping track, and I didn’t expect an acceptance letter from all the schools, but a simple ‘no’ wouldn’t be that much to ask.”

“You guys are together now; does it matter what went wrong along the way?” Gabriel poked his head in from around the corner. He and Sam and little Jack were baking cookies in the kitchen.

“Actually, yeah, it does matter. It’s basic decency to send a fucking letter. Cas, you sure you sent our applications in?” Dean asked as he turned to his husband.

“I remember giving them to Gabe to mail in the morning after we drove Sammy to school that day. We didn’t have time to drop them off at the post office ourselves.”

“Gabe!” Dean yelled. “Get your candy-coated ass in here. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

The man in question walked towards them with a sheepish grin on his face. “Before you get angry, I was only trying to help.”

Emma walked up to her uncle and pointed her tiny finger at him. “Uncle Gabe, you keep saying that. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”

Leaning down to her level, Gabe put his hands on Emma’s shoulders. “Little girls need to keep their mouth shut - that’s what it means. And no more watching The Princess Bride. Everyone in this house knows the words to it now!”

He shooed her into the kitchen to help decorate the fresh cookies.

“Look,” he said as he slumped into an armchair. “Like you said, it was the only school that you guys didn’t agree on. Dean thought you two could make it work by going to separate schools, but first-time young love is too fragile for a long-distance relationship. Even if you both stayed at that school, it didn’t have what you wanted to learn, Cassie. So, no matter what, one of you would be unhappy. I took both of your applications and ripped them up, therefore eliminating the choice. All the other schools you could go to together. It would start you off on the right foot.”

“Gabe, you had no right. What if we got in at that school? How might our lives have changed?”

“That’s exactly what I was hoping to avoid.”

“Well, now we’ll never know.”

“Hang on… that’s giving up, Cas. Yes, I love my life and how it turned out and I wouldn’t do anything differently. But you know how hard it is for me to see someone – much less an entire school – accept me. I want to know if I got in there.”

“Dean, didn’t you hear? He didn’t send in your application. There’s no response to be had.”

“I could just apply again.”

“…what? That’s silly.”

“It’s the principle of things. I want to teach our kids to not give up just because _someone_ told them to,” Dean said, looking at Gabe. He got up from the couch and went into their shared office, turning on the computer. His youngest daughter wandered in and he pulled her into his lap.

“Okay, kiddo. Your dad’s gonna apply to college.”

Half an hour later, the entire family was sitting around the dining table, taking turns answering the simple questions that the school asked.

“This is an easy one,” Dean said. “What’s our last name?”

“WINCHESTER!” Both Emma and Jack screamed.

“Okay, this one’s a toughie: what’s Daddy’s middle name?” He looked around the table at blank stares. “Come on, guys! Someone has to know.” They all shook their heads. “It’s Michael.”

Sam spoke up: “Wow, even I didn’t know that. Now I’m trying to remember my own middle name. It wasn’t really important growing up. I’ll have to look through our birth certificates later.” Dean shook his head in fondness. Leave it to Sam to turn this into a bigger research project than it needed to be.

“Next question: where do we live?”

“402 Orchard Drive.” Claire, the oldest daughter, recited from memory.

Dean looked at the rest of the questions. He could do this. When he flipped the page, though… there were short-answer essay prompts. He wasn’t much of a writer. Maybe Cas could help with that? Dean could at least brainstorm ideas with his family, though.

The first essay asked: _‘Tell us about your extracurricular activities.’_

He exhaled a long sigh. “What does Daddy like to do for fun?”

“Fix cars!”

“Watch TV with Grampa Bobby and Uncle Sam!”

“Eat pie!” That last one made him laugh. He could do this. Dean answered the next question on his own.

_“What are you passionate about?”_

_Family_ , he wrote as he looked around the table. _My family is the most important thing I will ever have in this lifetime. I lucked out with an amazing husband –_

That’s right, he wasn’t going to hide his sexuality just for some stupid stuck-up college admissions’ board. He’d been out of the closet this long, and nothing would push him back in. 

_– and three wonderful children. I’m able to spend the majority of my time with them, thanks to a flexible schedule. That wouldn’t have happened without my Uncle Bobby, though. He took me and my brother in at a young age, acting as our father-figure. I’ve worked for him for as long as I can remember in his old car repair shop, and now I’m taking over the business. I’m grateful that he trusts me with something he’s built from the ground up. I’ve learned that it’s okay to ask for help and rely on others. It really does take a village sometimes. But family has your back, even when you don’t want them to, or when you don’t believe in yourself. I want to make them proud and return the favor by doing something that will help all of us._

\- - -

Later that night, Cas and Dean were sitting up in bed reading their favorite magazines, Nature and Cars Weekly. Without looking up from his page, Cas said: “You know, if you wanted to go back to school for real, we could make it work.”

“Really?” Dean asked, turning towards his husband.

“Yes. You’re taking over Bobby’s business now, and knowing you, you probably feel nervous and like you’ll fail as soon as he leaves. It might give you a confidence boost to brush up on some skills and knowledge in that department. It’s worth a shot, Dean, and can’t hurt to try.”

“I’ll look into it tomorrow. Thanks, Cas. Your faith in me means a lot.”

“Of course. This choice would undoubtedly help all of us.”

\- - -

Dean spent the next day with taxes, bills, the family’s online bank account, and an old calculator strewn around the table. He wore his thick reading glasses and was chewing the end of his pencil. His hair… well, let’s just say that he had raked his hands through it more times in the last hour than he had messed up Cas’ head of hair in the last week.

“Daddy, you look silly,” Emma said as she walked up to him and tugged on his shirt sleeve.

“Sometimes you have to look silly to be professional,” he replied.

“pro-fesh-un-ul” she sounded out the word.

“Yes. Do you mind getting me a glass of water, sweetie? I think I’m sweating out all my fluids.” Dean took a bead of sweat from his forehead and flung it at his daughter.

Emma giggled, but nodded.

It would take hard work, scrimping and saving and redoing the family budget, but Dean thought he could actually go to grad school without too much debt.

\- - -

The next week was spent choosing schools to apply to. Most were either entirely online or located nearby. Dean sent a total of 10 applications out. All he had to do was wait a month or so to hear back. Easy, right?

“Caaaassss,” Dean whined after checking the mailbox every day for the last week. No one else was allowed to get the mail. “Why don’t they like me? How hard is it to say yes? I mean, I’m awesome!”

With a low chuckle, Cas agreed. He remembered his then-boyfriend saying the exact same words during their first round of applying to college. “These things take time, Dean. I’m sure you were just as impatient as a teenager all those years ago.”

“This sucks balls!” Dean stomped into the garage to work on his car, even though it looked near perfect. At least it would distract him for a couple hours.

“Sucks balls,” baby Jack copied, as Cas carried him back inside the warm house.

“Bad word, Jack. No-no.” Cas reprimanded. “Daddy has to watch his language around you, doesn’t he? Yes he does, yes he does!” Jack smiled and clapped his hands together.

\- - -

Time flew by surprisingly fast in the Winchester household. Finally, the day had come. A big envelope from one of Dean’s top choice schools had arrived.

“It’s here! It’s here!” Dean yelled as he opened the front door. The family came rushing to see what he was talking about.

Waving the envelope in the air, Dean asked Cas: “I don’t want to open it. Maybe it says no.”

“That’s okay. You don’t have to know if you don’t want to, Dean. You have more than enough acceptances to make a decision.”

“But…” Dean rubbed the back of his neck and moved from one foot to the next in hesitation.

“Would you like me to open it for you instead?” Cas asked gently.

“You know, maybe I should be the one to do it. It is my future, after all.”

“It’s our future, all of our’s. But you’re doing the hard work. It’s your choice, Dean.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Claire yelled, jumping up to grab the envelope. She raced to her room and closed the door.

“CLAIRE!!!” Cas screamed. “She knows she’s not allowed to say swear words in this house. I’ll be taking that money out of her allowance this week! I wonder who she learned it from…”

“Don’t look at me,” Gabriel said with his hands raised in both surrender and self-defense. “You’re the one that married a Neanderthal. At least my human is civilized, well-groomed, and seduces me with that big brain of his. What’s that word, Sammy?” he asked, turning to his husband.

“Sapiosexual.”

“Ooh, talk nerdy to me.” Gabe flung his arms dramatically around Sam’s neck, and wrapped his legs around Sam’s waist before going in for a kiss.

“Ewww,” Emma and Jack said, mimicking gagging noises. Cas shook his head. How could he be angry with a family that constantly provided infinite entertainment?

“Go check on Claire. Knowing her, she’ll be signing you up for classes without your permission. She’s really been excited about all of this. You’re a big role-model to her, Dean.” Cas put his hand on Dean’s cheek. They stared at each other for some time before their two kids said “Ewww” again, breaking the spell.

Dean knocked on the bedroom door before opening it. “Claire? Is it good news or bad news?”

“Dear Dean Winchester,” she read aloud. “We are pleased to announce your acceptance into our school. On behalf of our entire staff, congratulations!”

Dean whooped and hollered so loudly that the neighbor’s dog started barking next door.

“This calls for a celebration,” he said. “I’m taking everyone out for pie!”

\- - -

Dean decided to attend a local college that let him do most of his coursework online. He only had to meet with his professors in-person every Friday. Surprisingly, the Winchester’s neighbor, Kevin Tran was in his second year at the same school. Dean and Kevin decided to ride there together every Friday. Dean never would have expected how much he ended up liking the kid. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

\- - -

Two years later, Dean was putting on his cap and gown. It was graduation day.

“I look silly,” he said as he stared at himself in the mirror.

“Sometimes you have to look silly to look professional,” his daughter Emma, now nine years old, said as she came up behind him.

“Oh, is that right?” Dean asked, feigning innocence. “Who on Earth would say something like that?”

“Beats me!” Emma squealed as Dean ran after her, tackling her to the ground in a tickle fight.

“That’s enough!” Cas called out. “I need you to look nice for pictures.”

Dean mocked his husband and made silly faces, causing Emma to burst out laughing again.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said.

Three hours and many photos later, they dropped off Kevin and his mom before heading home. Dean got out of the car to say goodbye.

“You know, kid… I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Mr. Winchester – Dean,” Kevin corrected himself, “we did it together.”

“Come here. Now, I don’t do many chick-flick moments, so you better take advantage,” Dean said as he shot one last selfie of the two of them together. Surprisingly, it would turn out to be one of his favorite pictures of the day. “You’re family now, you hear? I expect to see you next Friday night at dinner.”

“Yes, sir.” the boy next door replied.

“You and your mom have a good night, okay?” Dean said as he rounded the corner to his house.

“You too!” Kevin yelled, waving back.

Dean knew that what he had at home was special, with or without his new degree. But… it did bring a smile to his face that he’d have to find a place on the wall to hang this diploma – even if he pretended to do it so Sammy would stop nagging him.


End file.
